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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Green and Red, Neal Rutherford Dust 2008 Zesty Zinfandels

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Green and Red 2008 Zinfandel Chiles canyon, Napa Valley, $20.99, 92 points, has the color of a young Bordeaux with aroma of currant and blueberry, is fruit-forward with a medium plus body and bright acidity. This Zin has remarkable character, having a long finish of white and black pepper. I'm in love with this vintage, it is true to its brambly nature of blackberry, yet is robust where the Neal Zin is vibrant. Neal Family Vineyards 2008 Zinfandel, "Rutherford Dust", Napa Valley,$22.09,91 points, is the cleanest Zin I've yet tasted.The color is budding red rose, and the aroma is sweet plum and blueberry.Neal has made a quintessential Zinfandel with bramble berry, tongue tingling cascade of spice, dominant plum with hints of cigar, and cherry liqueur, which are almost over-whelmed by the macho zest that is carried by a medium body with good acidity.The finish is long and captivating with as much spice as Arrakis.

Neal Family Zin affords me the opportunity of standing, in the face of two reviewers (One a professional) who hated this wine, saw only "Fruit blob" and no spice, I, standing my ground, my palate."Drink what you like, not what you're told" is what Laura Larson says; I must agree with her.Have you ever gone bird watching? Well, there are "bird snobs" and there are "wine snobs", both are not worth getting too shook-up about.

Well, I have this ongoing struggle to understand the disparity between a "real" sommelier, his 85 points and the afore mentioned "blob" descriptor of the Neal Family Vineyard 2008 Zinfandel and my own score (And Pleasure) of 91 points; this got me researching this wine and what other critics had for comments; not so as to change my opinion, but to try and understand what creates such a disparity. Today is Tuesday the 22 of March 2011, and this is some of what I found:Wine Enthusiast magazine also scored this wine 91 points and described this wine as "polished beauty. . . scads of pepper spice"Wine Life rated this wine 3 out of 4 stars and as a "World class wine."This, my wine drinking friends is subjectivity at work!